Television sets, despite the introduction of new technology, are relatively unchanged from the original incarnations. Whereas originally television sets received broadcasts via antenna, now coaxial cable and satellite dishes are more common, but the basic encoding of the information is relatively unchanged. The promise of digital television may reflect some change to the broadcast format, but it is difficult to say whether any actual change might come from digital television.
As a result, most of the technological improvements in televisions have been added to the sets themselves. For example, closed captioning provides viewers who have a difficult time hearing the audio the ability to understand what is being said. Television sets are migrating from the original cathode ray tube technology (CRT) to liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and plasma televisions, which offer large sets without requiring significant depth in the set. And picture-in-picture technology provides viewers with the ability to stay aware of two shows at the same.
But picture-in-picture technology offers relatively little. One program is displayed on the display; the second program is shown in a small window, which blocks the covered portion of the first program. Aside from selecting the two programs, the only control the user has over the technology is to position the window on the display. Regardless of the user's settings, a portion of the first program is blocked, and the second program fills the window (reduced in size to fit the window's dimensions, which makes viewing the program in the window almost unviewable).
Projectors have been around for quite some time. Historically, they projected only static images. The image to be projected would be placed a horizontal surface above a light source. Mirrors would then reflect the image onto a vertical surface parallel to the front of the projector, for easy viewing. The image could be raised or lowered by changing the angle of the mirror, and could be focused by raising or lowering the mirror (thereby changing the focal length of the projector).
In addition, many people are using displays to present information from computers: for example, the display can be connected to a computer acting as part of a media center. When displays are used in this manner, the user might want to use the display for both computing purposes and for television display. But, again, the technology is limited in its windowing capabilities, and in its ability to successfully switch between the two uses are needed.
Accordingly, a need remains for a way to use a display to control the presentation of information from multiple sources that addresses these and other problems associated with the prior art.